A whole lot to say…

Running with my friend Monte is officially over.  He has left Buffalo with his wonderful family for the Navy.  We did it though.  We got him to the point where he could pass the 1.5 mile run in 14 minutes.  I will miss Monte a lot, he was my chief video game partner.  He is a great friend.

I know this will be a surprise to alot of pepole but, Lidia has chosen to move in with us during her breaks from college.  She is entering Gannon University this fall, and decided that it was time to move out of the Wulfs home and into ours.  It is very exciting to have her at the house.  She is really excited about school and life starting.  Stacey took her to her driving exam today and she passed it.  So watch out people, stay off the sidewalks.  Now she has the task of organizing everything between stuff for her new room, stuff for college, and stuff to store in the basement for now.  I sort of envy Lidia.  I would go back to Siena in a second if I could.  Of course, I probably would not have left in the first place if they would let me stay in the town houses for the rest of my life.

AJ is doing great.  Lots of new words, almost on a daily basis now.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t like to say them all to often.  Did you know you could wear out a word, so you wouldn’t want to say it to many times.  His big words are “whoa” and “NO”.  His words to keep you happy are “purple” and “Bradley” which sound like “puple” and “Bladaih.”  He is loving Lidia to chase around the house.  He is starting to tell us when he goes to the bathroom, says he wants to go potty (which means put toilet paper in the toilet and flush, not actually sitting on the seat).  So we purchased a seat for him and some pull ups, probably to early but we figured it would be nice to start at any pace he sets right now.  It would be nice to have him trained soon.

Yard sale labor day weekend, come buy all the stuff I don’t want anymore.

Don’t believe it

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

It was a start.  A ratical statement to the world.  It wasn’t just to start a new country.   That had happened before more times then most could count.  It wasn’t even that it would be a Republic, that had also been done.  It was to form a more perfect union.  That is more than just simple words or naive dreaming, it is a compact with each other that the perfection of the Union would always be maintained and sought.  Sure, it fell apart.  That will always occure when inequality is tollorated.  But it was made whole again.

Now, we seem to have forgotten something.  We are the United States of America.  To often that is combined with an apology or some sort of embarassment.  To hell with that.  We are the United States of America, WE THE PEOPLE are the more perfect Union.  Don’t apologize for that.  Don’t tell me that is something to have shame in.  Yet we have become constantly bombarded with news and celebrities and politicians who feel that the Union must feel ashamed.  Don’t be ashamed, for you have nothing to be ashamed of.  Don’t believe it.  Don’t buy into it, it isn’t true.  We are the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. We are the good guys, not the bad.  We police ourselves, we improve ourselves, we endeavor always to form a more perfect union.  No other country can say the same.  So turn off the media, stop listening to those who look down on you like you are to stupid, backwards or ignorant to live your own life.  You are an American.  If you are in debt, you don’t cry, you work hard, stop spending money and get out of debt.  If you are not making enough money, you don’t ask for a hand out, you educate yourself, pick yourself up, and get a better job, or two jobs or three.  You don’t need a government to bail you out, YOU ARE AN AMERICAN.  You fight and you fight hard because it isn’t about you it isn’t about me, and it isn’t about anything else other then forming that more perfect Union.  Get off your ass, and stand up.  Start now, contribute.  Listen to those voices of the past.  Not today’s constant drumbeat of crisis and disaster.  You are American.   

Running with Monte

A good friend of mine has joined the navy.  He is going in as an anesthesiologist so he will be an Officer.  His Officer Development School begins September 1^st, so he has asked me to help him with running.  He will need to be able to run 1.5 miles in less then 14:30.  That is a 9:40 mile pace.  Not to hard but he has not been running regularly in six years.  Sure there has been some on again off again training on a treadmill and stuff but nothing really serious.  The good news is that the training has been going really well.  Our first two weeks were rough but now he is making most of the predetermined distances on each run.  Today, we did five miles and he only walked one of them.  That is a vast improvement.  Also, he has clocked a 14:32 for the 1.5 miles.  Of course that is the maximum allowable time so we want to get well below that mark.  Still, I am very pleased in how he has developed.  I am also glad that it has done some good for my own running.  I like having someone to compete with, encourage, and challenge.  It makes me more conscientious. 

Run Run as fast as you can…

Not my gum drop buttons….

Well, running has consistently been about seven miles a week.  I know this isn’t a lot, and you may be wondering, how are you going to run a marathion, much less a BQ on seven miles a week.  There was a word in there that I would like you to focus on.  CONSISTENTLY.  Thats right.  I am getting in three quality runs a week.  I would rather have that then the on again off again I have suffered from for the past two years.  Sure I hope to increase the milage, and I will.  But I figured once I get three down to the point where it is a standard part of my day, I can start increasing. 

As for the runs themselves.  They can range between one and four miles.  I have developed an A and B plan to my running.  Plan or Goal A is a predetermined distance and run type.  Say a 3 mile run consisting of 1/4 mile sprints.   Plan or Goal B is to run on every day I predetermined to run.  It is more important to not miss a day then it is to complete the planned run.  So I have a one mile route from front door to front door whever I know I will not be able to stick to Plan A.  This maintains the habit of running.  And since I can really crank that one mile it ensures a level of quality as well.

On a side note, the olympic trials were last week and this weekend.  I don’t know if you all follow it, but I have been following the middle distance and long distance runners.  Many of you know that Micheal Shay recently died in his quest to quailify for the marathon in NYC.  His wife Alicia was suppose to run the 10K at this years trials in Eugene, OR.  Well, she injured herself chasing after her puppy and could not race.  She trains with Jack Daniels, no relation and not a dietary suppletment, who believed she had not healed enough and risked a set back or worse injury.  This is incredibly sad, so please pray for her as she heals both physically and emotionally.   Also, one of my favorite couple elite runners, Kara and Adam Groucher competed in the trials.  Congratulations to Kara who made the team, Adam however did not.  He has been hampered by a string of injuries from a strained back and stress fractures in his feet.  Not since the time of Prefontaine has the USA scene such a resurgence in distance running, fitting that it should occure on Hayward field.  In the world of running, this is Yankee stadium, Soldier Field, and Madison Square Garden all rolled into one.  If the world of track and field had a place to call home, its University of Oregon’s Hayward Field.

Where did June go?

Sorry for the long time between posts.  I was just lightly reminded that I need to take time to type these things or they simply will not post themselves.  Thanks Brian.  It seems that we can just let life pass by.  As I sit here at ten to eleven at night, listening to my son cry, wondering how long I should let him before going upstairs, I realize how lost in the rush of life Stacey and I have become.  Its July.  In fact, its the sixth of July, the holiday is past the month is racing to start.  Here I am, wondering, can I catch up. 

Our bathroom is nearly demolished, just a couple of more days of work and it will be completely down to stud.  Then I start rerouting the plumbing and put up the wallboard.  By the end of August we should have a new half bath and first floor laundry room.  Not bad.  Also, we should have a good amount of space cleared out in the basement.  Once this is done the last thing to update will be the kitchen.  That will not be done soon and will only consist of a new laminate floor.

Research is going well.  Not great, but each week I get closer, no longer at a stand still, which is nice.  I would rather have a constant slow intake of data rather than nothing. 

Stacey and AJ spent a week down in NJ.  I went down and picked them up.  We had a nice time, lots of family excited to see AJ.  Most of them were shocked at how big he was and how much he could do already.  We also stopped off at my parents just to congratulate my nice on graduating from Kindergarden.  We gave here some new toys for her new pool.  She should enjoy them.

Lets see, my bosses grant was finally submitted and she went on vacation.  Even though we are all working, it is a little like a vacation for the lab too.  Noreen doesn’t really take time off except for these two weeks, and we know how great it is for her to decompress away from all of us.  She is a great boss, but even she gets burnt up after a while. 

Of course, the Alien is not without his wierdness.  He wont go in his pool, he just wants to stand outside of it and let us splash him as he giggles.  Crazy.  He seems to have gotten bitten by something, or had a bad reaction to something.  We can’t tell, they look like bad bug bites to me, and since we spent a lot of time outside this weekend, I wouldn’t be surprised.  Stacey is freeking out, thinking he is having a reaction to his sun screen, but I would think that would affect the rest of his body, and this seems to be on his legs, more consistant to a bug bite.  Anyway, he doesn’t seem to care but we will keep an eye  on it. 

Running will be reported in a different blog post.  Sorry guys.

What can you do in 4 minutes?

I am running an experiment right now in something called a spectrophotometer.  Basically, it detects changes in a solution over time using light.  I am looking for the creation of ATP a small molecule that is used to store all of the energy you harvest from food.  Without ATP you can’t do anything.  Basically, you would die.  Anyway, this experiment happens in four minute incriments.  Basically, I do nothing for four minutes, put the next sample in, do nothing for four minutes.  I have discovered that four minutes is an incredibly inconvient amount of time.  To short for some things, to long for others.  I constantly find myself either coming back to the spec 30 seconds early, or a minute late.  Just an observation, by the way, this post is to short to take up four minutes.

AJ slays his parents claiming a small victory

Yup, we both caught the stomach virus.  Unlike AJ who laughed and played through his illness, we suffered pain, vomitting and gastric distress.  His powers of mutating the virus into a worse disease for us are unmatched.  Yet, we weathered it well and now have regained our upper hand that is provided by merely being larger then him.  I fear that too shall soon change. 

The peace has been broken with the Alien Juvenile known as AJ

Yup, germ warfare has struck again.  Sure we have had many minor incursions with the incubator producing several strains of the common cold.  It seems that the strained peace that has existed over the last six months was merely the incubators way of lulling us into a false sence of security.  What began as a bad case of gas ulitmately escalated into two days of diarhea.  The AJ has managed to spread the disgusting matereal all over his cloths several times.  We only hope that this latest attempt on our lives is short lived.  Sadly, the mother unit has gone slightly insane with being stuck in the house with him.  I fear only extreme psychological help will bring her back to normal and I am not sure that will be possible either. 

Strangely, the AJ is able to remain quite happy and wants to play.  His evil grin gives away the fact that he is indeed winning and he knows it.  How he is able to keep going despite the illness is beyond me.  His constant push to be outside has not subsided.  Probably trying to act on our current state of weakness to escape into the world and cause havoc.  Fear not… we shall prevail…

Run with Paul

I am calling on everyone I know, in every way I know how.  As you know, running has become very important to me over the last few years.  It is something that I enjoy doing, I enjoy learning about, and I enjoy sharing with others.  I would like to invite as many of you to join me in this activity as I can.  I think it is by far one of the best recreational sports out there. Not only can you participate on your own, you can join a friend for a run, or even a large group as well.  You can compete in races from 1 mile to 5K to Marathons and beyond.  If you don’t like roads, run on trails, if you don’t like trails, run on the road.  If you don’t like leaving the air conditioning or the warm radiant heat of your furnace, run on a treadmill.  Just run.

 

With that in mind, I want to invite everyone to take part in a race.  The Phidippidations World Wide Half Marathon Challenge…and kick the couch 5K.  First off, if you can, come to Buffalo and run it with me.  It is the weekend of October 11^th and 12^th.  But the best thing is, if you can’t come to Buffalo, run it with me anyway at your home.   Huh?  How’s that?  The fdip half and 5K is an online race that takes place all over the world.  All you have to do is go to www.worldwidehalf.com and register.  Then train for the race you register for and run that distance on either the 11^th or 12^th of October.  You will be joined by fellow runners all over the world.  

 

If you want to run the race with me in Buffalo, then lets do it.  Come on out we will mark the course and run it together.  I would love to run it with a bunch of you, especially if you never thought you could do a 5K.  My plan is to mark out a 13.1 mile course here in Buffalo.  If you want to run the half, start with me probably around 6:30am on Saturday, October 11.  At the ten mile mark, you can join us in the last 3.1 miles if you want to do the 5K.  Knowing my time is usually around 2 hours to do 10 miles that will probably be right around 8:30 or so.  Assuming I don’t improve drastically between now and then. 

 

If you are interested, leave a comment on my Run with Paul post at www.mylifesrace.com, or email me at pgsignal@yahoo.com with the subject Run with Paul.  Make sure you give me some way to contact you with specifics.

 

I know many of you believe you can’t run 5K or 13.1 miles because you have been strapped to the COUCH OF DOOM for a really long time.  As a back of the pack, slightly overweight, and perpetually exhausted runner, I am here to tell you that you can do it.  All it takes is placing one foot in front of the other.  Sure you may walk most of that 5K or even all of it, but it just takes one step at a time to become active again.  I hope you decide to join me.

The Buffalo Half Marathon

Ok this was all Laurie’s fault.  Back in January after running the Disney Marathon, Laurie wanted to run another half marathon.   She had just run the Disney Half with my wife.  Despite being unable to walk well with blisters covering 80% of my feet from that days race, I agreed to do it with her.  Well, this is the race report.  I would like to not give it because of some of the things I will have to say, but here it is.

 

May 24^th, 2008 Packet Pickup.

 

Earlier in the year I had received my “I’m training for the Buffalo Half Marathon” T-shirt.  It was very nice, with a letter saying that I would also be receiving an official race T-shirt provided by New Balance.  Which was somewhat of a surprise.  And they were “excited” about their “expanded” sports expo.  Having only run the Disney Marathons and the Georgia Games Triathlon. I did not have very much experience to go on, but I was excited.  Stacey (my wife) and I got to the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Buffalo around 9:15 with my son AJ.  We were expecting Laurie around 10:30 with her boyfriend Chris.  Parking was surprisingly easy but cost us five dollars.  We went into the hotel and were directed to Ballroom A.  We were very excited as we got upstairs we found out that an Elks lodge meeting was also being held.  There was a very small sign pointing to a wall saying “Runners locate your bib numbers before going to pick up your packet.”  So I quickly found my name and number.  I was surprised that there were less then 2000 half marathoners and about half as many marathoners running the race.  At Disney, there are about seven to eight times as many.  

 

I am going to apologize right now.  You will see me make comparisons to the Disney marathon many times.  Probably because it is rather well organized and it is the only thing I have to compare it to.

 

So starts the adventure of getting my packet.  I go to the back of the expo and see several signs A-G, G-K, K-P, and so on.  I line up with others with the same number.  The coordinator helps the person in front of me and it is my turn.  I’m waiting, and waiting, and waiting………and waiting.   Finally, I try asking if I could be helped.  Wow.  I got my head handed to me because I along with the fifty other people behind me were in the wrong line.  I said, but my last name starts with a G and I am in the A-G line.  Her response, and very nasty, those signs don’t mean anything.  I don’t like getting upset with race volunteers. I don’t even like getting upset with the non-volunteer coordinators like the person I was dealing with.  Without these people, there would be no race to run.  They facilitate my hobby.  But I got upset and asked probably a little more harshly then I should “Then why do you have the signs up in the first PLACE?”  To which I was asked, “Well why are you asking me?”  Niceness now completely gone, along with the niceness of the now 60 people behind me, “Because you are on that side of the table and I am on this side of the table.”  Who the hell else would I ask?

 

After that I was quickly helped by one of the volunteers, who I later learned was actually not a race volunteer, she was a volunteer for the Run7NF group raising money.  NF is a horrible disease that affects children by ravaging there entire body and nervous system with tumors.  My anger quickly went away when I visited there table.  Perspective is something that we all need to have.  I have lived to see 31, I can run races, I am in grad school.  The little girl I met on Saturday will not. 

 

The rest of the expo literally took 10 minutes to look over.  It was about 3 other races registering people, a guy selling those massage sticks and one vender “Runners Roost.”  Very unexciting.  However, the nice guy at the Hyatt did give us a free apple juice for my son.

 

Later that evening, Stacey and I had grandma watch AJ and we went out for dinner.  It was nice to get to eat out.  We were suppose to go back downtown to the pasta dinner at St. Anthony’s Church, but decided last minute on Applebee’s.  Mainly because I had to go to work as well.  Unfortunately, I guess the food disagreed with me because I had had a bad case of diarrhea.

 

May 25, 2008  The Buffalo Half Marathon

 

The race was advertised as having port-a-pottie’s at each start point and along the race.  Along with water and Gatorade stops at 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 miles for the half marathoners.  I really needed to use a bathroom.  The diarrhea had subsided but I still needed to go, not emergent but I didn’t want to have to stop during the race.  If there were latrines for people to use, I didn’t see them.  Neither did most of the people around me.  I am sure they were there, somewhere.  Laurie’s IPOD cord was completely tangled  So I started undoing that for her just to pass the time.  Chris was still jonesing for some coffee, but alas the Dunk’n Donuts was closed.  We were all lined up when without warning a gun went off.  I am not lying, none of us knew that the race was starting.  Suddenly, this guy starts yelling, hey guys that means run.  A lady next to me went “OOOOHHHH”  I couldn’t help laughing at the surreal nature of it all.  So off we went.  I quickly lost Chris and Laurie in the crowd.  At Disney it takes about 3 miles for the crowd to really thin out enough, in Buffalo, probably about 100 feet.  I didn’t realize who close to the front of the pack I was until everyone started passing.  I got to the first mile in 8 minutes.  Way to fast so I immediately slowed it down.  I am sure there was a mile two sign somewhere, just not sure where.  By 19:00 I really had to go to the bathroom.  Unfortunately, the first Port-a-pottie so far was knocked over.  I kept going but now my stomach was really hurting.  I then saw a group of people around another port-a-pottie so I jumped in line, it was 22 minutes into the race.  As I waited, I realized that the line was not moving.  I looked at my watch it said 33 minutes.  I didn’t feel to bad so I took off, figuring I would get the next one.  I found that port-a-pottie at 37 minutes just after the 3 mile marker.  Another line, another wait, but now I can’t go, I must use this one.  Laurie caught up to me at this point.  I finally use the bathroom and my intestines feel ten times better.  But it is now 43 minutes into the race.  I think that any hope of a 2:30 half is gone, so I waited for Laurie to use the bathroom and we took off together at her pace.  I got some water at about 3.5 miles and we were off.  This area of the race is amazingly beautiful.  Buffalo has a very undeveloped waterfront that is breathless and not used for anything other than political fodder.  Still, I was loving the view.  We hit five miles only to discover that the water was completely gone.  Nothing.  But the volunteer offered us her T-shirt.  Kind of weird, but nice.  At this point Laurie mentioned that we would have been coming up on the Castle at Disney where people would have been lining the streets cheering for us.  There was no one where we were.  There was no one cheering over most of the course actually.  At times I felt quite lonely.  Since this seemed sort of depressing I ran up a few feet and jumped up on the side of the road and cheered for Laurie, I did this three more times.  The last time I said look Laurie I’m a Disney Princess as I waved like the Queen of England for her.  If anything it got a good laugh.  After this I decided to run faster and be a little more serious about the race.  I got to the 10K point in 1:22.  I hadn’t planned to but suddenly  I wanted to start keeping an audio record so that I could send it in to Steve Runner.  So I used my message function a few time on my cell phone.  Unfortunately I have not figured out how to get the messages off the phone yet.  The seven mile mark had water and Gatorade, but very little left.  I then started the really ugly part of the race.  Nothing but old rotting warehouses and abandoned factories from mile 7 to 12.  It’s really sad actually.  You feel as though Buffalo has fallen apart and missed the last decade of prosperity.  Mile 8 is a rather steep and long hill the is capped with a bridge.  You get to do that again at mile 10.  On the bridge I saw Chris headed the other way, and another friend Tom who looked really good.   Mile 9 was again out of water, but I was excited that one of my lab mates Charity, was out to cheer me on.  That was very nice of her.  If I had known she was there, I probably would not have goofed off as much with Laurie.  Mile 11 was again running out of water,  I was worried about Laurie behind me getting some, but I was also cramping so I took some.  Still, I felt bad about it.  Mile 11 and 12 were the hardest, I was dehydrated and cramping but I new I would finish.  There was no mile 13 sign, but I knew there wouldn’t be.  I got to Church Street about three blocks from the finish.  I was running but I didn’t have anything in my legs to push for a sprinting finish.  The cramps had taken all of that away.  Still I ran it in and finished in 2:51:26 according to my chip time.  My mom, dad, wife and son were all there cheering for me.  I was really hurting from the cramps as they took my chip and gave me a medal.  I started eating some apples provided and drinking Gatorade.  I had called my wife and told her that there was no water on the course so she came prepared and that was a really a blessing.  After recovering for about ten minutes and finding Chris, I ran down to church street looking for Laurie.  I saw her coming around the HSBC arena, home of the Buffalo Sabres.  I started running back towards the finish with her cutting out just before the finishing chute. 

 

All in all, it was a fun race.  But very unorganized.  There is absolutely never an excuse to not have enough water for every runner.  The race allows 6 hours to complete the full marathon.  That is me.  I am the back of the pack marathoner.  Of course I want to be more, but it is what I am now.  I’m proud of that, and I paid the same as everyone else on that course to be out there.  I disserve water, just like the Kenyans who one the Buffalo Marathon.  If I was going to do the whole marathon that day, I would have had to stop because of those cramps.  Cramps that when I hydrate I don’t get.  If I ever decide to run it again, and I may because it is very flat and a BQ race, I will be sure to have family manned personal water spots.  Another more scary thing.  Not one first aid station on the course. 

 

Well, that is my race report.  Good thing is I don’t really feel that much pain, just some stiffness.  Otherwise I am doing well.  If I ever figure out how to get the messages off my phone I will post them.